I couldn’t resist the suave allure of this copy of “Playboy’s Host & Bar Book” from 1971. Might have to finally get that bottle of Galliano!

1948 edition of “Bartender’s Guide…By Trader Vic”. Lots of fun recipes here and some pretty amusing insights in this early edition of Trader Vic’s Guide.

And finally, a vintage copy of Patrick Gavin Duffy’s “The Official Mixer’s Manual” from 1934. I’ve already noticed some discrepencies between this version and the 1956 James Beard edited version I had previously been relying on. For one thing, the Aviation Cocktail recipe in the older book is a verbatim copy of the Hugo Ensslin’s Aviation, calling for Creme de Violette and Maraschino. In the Beard edition it calls for Maraschino and Apricot Brandy. Certainly an odd substitution and one I’ve always wondered about. Nice to know it wasn’t Mr. Duffy’s choice.

I anticipate some fascinating reading in the coming months!

I hope Santa was as good to you, as he was to me, and wish you an exciting an eventful new year!

I’ve never found anywhere that’s a real goldmine for used cocktail books here in San Francisco. I’ll see one here or there, but no one really seems to specialize or even carry them consistently. The Playboy book would be the sort of thing I’d expect to see more often, and even 1970s era cocktail books don’t show up that often.

Great haul! I found a $5 brand-new copy of Imbibe! at my local shop a few weeks ago, which is also where I found The Savoy and some assorted others. They don’t generally carry a lot of cocktail books, but I find some real steals from time to time.

I (finally) got a copy of Craft of the Cocktail for Christmas. I guess Santa was good to a lot of his little hard-drinking elves this year!